Send to Mail Recipient command appears dimmed (312412)

SYMPTOMS

Microsoft Access disables the Send to Mail Recipient command although all requirements to send are met and other Microsoft Office products have the same command enabled.

To use Send to Mail Recipient, the following requirements must be met:

You must have an object selected that can be sent. All objects except macros can be sent. Tables, queries, forms, reports, Web pages, and modules are all objects that can be sent.
You must have a MAPI client, such as Microsoft Outlook, installed on the same computer.

Note You may experience similar issues with other Office applications such as Word, PowerPoint and Excel.

CAUSE

This problem occurs when Access cannot find the Win.ini values MAPI or MAPIX in the [MAIL] section of the Win.ini file. Access may be unable to find the Win.ini values MAPI or MAPIX if these values have been removed from the Win.ini file. With Terminal Server, the user may not have permissions to create or to read files in the root directory path. (The root directory is specified in User Manager for Domains under the user's properties, Profile, User Environment Profile.)

RESOLUTION

Determine why Access cannot read the Win.ini [MAIL] MAPI or MAPIX values (see the "Cause" section) and then correct the problem.

For example:

If the settings have been unintentionally deleted, rerun Setup with the Repair option to re-create the settings.
If the root directory is mapped to a non-existent location, correct the path.
Verify that the user has permissions to create and to read files in the root directory.

MORE INFORMATION

Unlike other Office applications, Access only checks for MAPI or for MAPIX in Win.ini to determine whether mail support exists. If the value 1 is not retrieved for any reason, Access disables the Send to Mail Recipient command.

Windows copies several settings to the root directory of the user, or the Terminal Server root directory, as specified in the User Environment Profile dialog box. Among those settings is a copy of Win.ini. If the path for the root directory does not exist or the user does not have rights to create the file in that directory, the Win.ini check fails in Access, and Access disables the Send to Mail Recipient command.